toontownfandomcom-20200214-history
Toontown Wiki:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style outlines the editing guidelines of Toontown Wiki. It helps keep articles in their highest quality by keeping it consistent, clear, and properly formatted. This Manual of Style has been adapted from Avatar Wiki's Manual of Style. Language and grammar Toontown Wiki uses American English as it is the language and dialect used in the game's main servers and by its developers and the majority of the game's players. Adding non-American English to articles is not an offense, but it may be changed for consistency. Some words differ from language, such as spelling, but they have the same meaning. For example, "Color" and "Colour" are different spellings of the same word. American English prefers the spelling of Color. Colour is used in other main varieties of English. It is recommended to use the American English version. Sometimes, a subject may contain some form of non-American English material. For example, Casa de in Casa de Castanets (a toon building) is Spanish word meaning "house of." It is alright to post this type of information. When adding non-English material, please italicize it. Formal vs. Informal Although Toontown Wiki is about Toontown Online, a game full of silliness, as an encyclopedia, it should be using formal language. Slang and non-official abbreviations should be avoided when unnecessary. However, they may be used in user pages, talk pages, blog posts, and forums, although it is recommended to be easy-to-read. Point of view Toontown Wiki uses the third-person point of view. Rarely should the first-person (I, me, we, etc.) and second-person (you, your, etc.) be used (in this case, the most applicable would be quotes from in-game characters). Numbers At most, whole numbers between one through nine should always be written out, unless it it included in any form of artistic work. :Incorrect: There are 3 cats. :Correct: There are three cats. Numbers that take two words or fewer to say can be written as numerals or words, whereas all other numbers should be in numerals. :For example: 1/2 or one half, 47 or forty-seven, but 47 billion, 392, 5.75 Use commas to delimit numbers with five or more digits to the left of the decimal point. Numbers with four digits are under the editor's discretion. :For example: 15,458, 1,000 or 1000 Article titles and sections Article titles The article title is the name of a page. All article titles should be using sentence-case. *Article titles should be using proper capitalization. The first letter of the article title should be capitalized, as well as the first letter of each proper noun. **For example, Cog battle instead of Cog Battle because the "b" is not a proper noun nor is it the first letter of an article title; The Happy Times instead of The happy times because it is the name of a toon building. *Use singular form - articles should be in the singular form, not the plural form. **For example, Cat instead of Cats. *Use parenthesis to distinguish articles with similar titles. **For example, Rose (flower) vs. Rose (NPC). Article sections *Headings should not contain links. *Headings should use proper capitalization. *There should rarely be any images on headings. Capitalization Always use proper capitalization. Unnecessary capitalization should be avoided. :Incorrect: This Is Not Acceptable. or tHIs iS nOT AcCepTaBle! :Correct: This is acceptable. Capitalization of definite articles In most cases, "the", "a", and "an" are never capitalized, unless they are the first word of a sentence or any form of artistic works. :Non-artistic work (incorrect): this page is The Manual of Style :Non-artistic work (correct): this page is the Manual of Style :Proper nouns (incorrect): defeat the Big Cheese :Proper nouns (correct): defeat The Big Cheese :Titles (incorrect): read the Toon News... for The Amused! :Titles (correct): read the Toon News... for the Amused! Capitalization of conjunctions and prepositions :(Conjunctions: and, for, nor, or, but, so, yet) :(Commonly used prepositions: for, with, to, at, of, in) The following should never be capitalized, unless it is the first word of a sentence or an article title or section, and/or included in any form of artistic works. :Titles (incorrect): Toon News... For the Amused! :Titles (correct): Toon News... for the Amused! :Proper nouns (incorrect): for Richer Or Snorer :Proper nouns (correct): For Richer or Snorer Article bodies Links *Avoid linking section headers. *Avoid linking unnecessary punctuation. Letters or words touching links will be included in the link and should avoided as well. :Incorrect: Cog. or Cogis :Correct: Cog. or Cog is *Add links where they are relevant and helpful in the context. Rarely should two or more different links be next to each other. :Incorrect: They are one of the five-star SOS toons. :Correct: Flippy, Clerk Clara, and Barnacle Bessie are one of the five-star SOS toons. *Do not add external links without consent of the administrators. If you are willing to affiliate with us, please contact an active administrator and create a forum. Images *Avoid having text between two or more images (sandwich effect). Also avoid text between images and infoboxes. *Avoid stacking images on top of each other. Put unnecessary yet relevant images into galleries. Remove irrelevant images. *Leave short, appropriate captions. *All images must be named appropriately. :Incorrect: File:Screenshot-day-month-mm-dd-ss-mm-yy-00000.jpg or File:ah!ggfj!.png :Correct: File:Toontown_Online.jpg *All images must abide to the wiki rules. No inappropriate content. Templates Templates should be added where it is necessary and removed when it is unnecessary. This includes the Needs Improvement templates. *In most cases, please do not add categories into the templates that automatically adds the categories to the articles. *The prefix "Template:" does not need to be added, as long as you are using these form of brackets ( ). *Infobox templates (such as Template:NPC) should always be at the top of the article. *Listing templates (such as Template:Coglisting) should always be at the bottom of the article and on top of categories. Trivia Trivia helps readers learn more facts about the subject that is not originally in the main body of the article. *Avoid opinions (even general opinions), such as "Most toons think...", as they are not true facts and are only generated by the user fanbase. *Avoid redundancy. Always check to see if the article has the fact before adding. *Decide whether the fact is more relevant in the body or trivia. If the fact is important, it should belong in the body. If it is only worth noting, it should belong in the trivia. *Only post relevant information. If it belongs on a more specific article or another topic, post it on the other article. *If a trivia is related to another trivia, add an indented list below the parent trivia. If that should be the case, however, decide whether the facts are enough to generate their own main body paragraph. Galleries A gallery should be created when there are images unnecessarily scattered in the article. When the article has ten or more images in the gallery, a gallery page should be created and all gallery images should be placed in the gallery page. Furthermore, a link to the gallery page (using Template:GalleryLink) should be added in the gallery section of the article. *Rarely should images contain two or more images of the same subject (for example, you need not to add different views of a character). Categories Categories help readers navigate to several related articles. All categories should be placed at the bottom of the article. *Articles usually only go in the most specific category of their topic and not their parents of that category, unless it is specified that it is okay. Articles should never be added to categories that do not correspond to the subject. :Incorrect: Article Cogs under Category:Gags :Correct: Article Cogs under Category:Cogs :Specified that it is okay: Telemarketer under Category:Cogs (parent) and Category:Sellbots (sibling of Category:Cogs) Due to misunderstandings of categorizing, we ask that you do not create new categories and add them to articles. Most of the time, these categories are not intended to exist, or there is already an existing category. Please ask the community for support on categorizing. If you are unsure of what categories to add, check similar articles. Bolding and italicizing Bolding When a text is in bold, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing three single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase. The first time the name or subject of the article appears should be bold. For example: Grand Piano is the level six Drop gag. Do not use bold to add emphasis or to grab attention on articles. Italicizing When a text is in italics, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing two single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase. Using double quotes will not make the word or phrase italicized. Italics should be used for long works of literature and art, video games, films (and short films), television series, music albums, and paintings. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, and other short works should not be italicized but should be enclosed in double quotes. :Long works (incorrect): Toon News... for the Amused! :Long works (correct): Toon News... for the Amused! :Short works (incorrect): Ask Toontown (a section in the Toon News... for the Amused!) :Short works (correct): "Ask Toontown" Italics can also be used to add emphasis on words or phrases. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation. :Incorrect: What is that? :Correct: What is that? Category pages A category page is a directory of articles that have been categorized in the category. *Categories should never be added in themselves. :Incorrect: Category:Cogs inside Category:Cogs *Only add the parent category rather than sibling categories. :Incorrect: Category:Sellbots inside Category:Bossbots (sibling of Category:Cogs) :Correct: Category:Sellbots inside Category:Cogs (parent) Due to misunderstandings on categories, we ask that you do not create new categories at this time. Most of the time, the category should not exist, or there is already an existing category. Miscellaneous *Avoid adding unnecessary tildes (~). Never add your signature and/or timestamp (~~~ and ~~~~ should be avoided at all cost). *Avoid adding emotion. For example: "The Mingler is so tough!" or :-D *Please spell out words. Avoid using unnecessary abbreviations. For example: MH for Mr. Hollywood **Exceptions include: a toon's name, building name, NPC, SOS, and TNT. *Use a hashtag (#) at the beginning of a line to make a list. Avoid using 1. 2. 3., etc. Keep all lines together and not separated by a space. Doing so will mess up the order and numbering. *Use an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line to make a bullet point. Keep all lines together and not separated by a space. Manual of Style